Much more should be done to make information from global fisheries accessible. Indeed, given that the work is usually publicly funded, we feel there is a ‘right to know’. Fish suppliers should know, and pass on, what stocks the fish come from, and the bodies responsible for monitoring those stocks should make it easy to access straightforward advice. The onus should not be on chefs, restauranteurs, or any other consumers, to track down information and work out how to interpret it – a daunting task.

It follows that the state of fish stocks, need to be assessed to a common standard - which is why we place so much importance on the criteria of the FAO Code of Conduct, and the holding of global governments to their  commitment to reach these goals.

For the time being chefs and others have to turn to initiatives such as MCS’s FishOnline, (for many of the fish likely to be found in European markets) the US-based Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood WATCH and The New Zealand Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society’s Best Fish Guide, all of which do a great job with limited resources, turning the technicalities into something more accessible. MSC also publishes details of the stocks it assesses for certification.

If this were not bad enough, neither official or alternative sources have the resources to go down to the local level for the many inshore fisheries where there can be significant variations from site to site, or which may not even be monitored. This is a real problem where one wants to source locally, which partly explains how and why we got involved.

Chapter and Verse